Tag Archives: pdca

In Toyota Production System (TPS) action takes place through the Plan-Do-Check-Act-Cycle

If we relate this to Scrum we see a lot of emphasis on the Do, Check, Act part. But not as much on the plan part. Planning is usually explained as a an activity that takes place on sprint planning day where both team and product owner are participating.

However, how do we deal with situations like:

stories that require a multi team effort

interfaces to third party systems

..and given a definition of done "running in production" are we answering questions like:

are we implementing the right solution to our problem?

is our delivery useful to our recipients?

have we got access to necessary resources?

can we test? can we deploy?

Basically we need continuously run a thought process in the sprint before we do the implementation. Typically a development team spend around 20% of their time planning for their implementation (Mary Poppendieck).

The deliverable for the thought process is "story has business value and is estimatable"
So how do we go about?

Option 1: Use scrum master as an analyst
Appoint the Scrum master as the responsible person for dealing with forward thinking.

Pro’s:

SM is already a contact point

He does not suffer as much from interupt control as other team members

Con’s

Not always the correct technical person for solutions

Team can feel overrun

Option 2: Use an external analyst
Get a dedicated analyst in the team that always looks forward.

Pro’s:

Releaves team from communication stress

Con’s

Adds an extra handover step (waste)

Needs to be a superb communicator with team.

Analysts tend to lean over to business focus

Communication issues remain hidden

Option 3: Assign a "look ahead" story for each sprint
Insert a story which makes next sprint stories estimatable.
Team can pick tasks from this story in same way as on normal stories.

Pro’s:

Team can choose among the stories in normal scrum way

Communication issues are surfaced

Bonding to outside parties is preserved in team

Con’s

Product owner needs to have a forward vision

Team members might need training in communication skills

Implementation might suffer if extensive travel is required

My personal preference is with the option #3. But I have also seen option #1working in Scrum teams. The bottom line is that you need to think this through or you might end up building software that does not deliver intended business value.